NHAI forms 3-member committee to examine damaged portion of Hero Honda Chowk flyover
An NHAI order, issued on Friday, stated that the committee would assess the condition of the damaged area and suggest remedial measures.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has constituted a three-member technical committee of experts for analysing the Hero Honda Chowk flyover, which has been damaged twice within the span of 13 months.
An NHAI order, issued on Friday, stated that the committee would assess the condition of the damaged area and suggest remedial measures.
Around 3.30am on Wednesday, a large chunk of the concrete had fallen off the surface of the flyover on the Jaipur-Delhi side, which led to heavy congestion. As a preventive measure, two of the four lanes of the flyover have been closed since and movement of heavy vehicles disallowed.
On April 23, 2018, a hole had appeared in the same concrete span of the flyover, forcing its closure. It was repaired on the recommendations of an expert team from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B).
The 1.4-km long flyover was constructed at the cost of Rs197 crore and was inaugurated in July 2017.
Officials said that the latest committee comprises eminent bridge expert Mahesh Tandon, VL Patankar, former director general (RD), ministry of road, transport and highways, and AK Srivastav, advisor, NHAI.
“A flyover has been constructed at Hero Honda Chowk on NH-8 by Valecha Engineering Ltd and work has been substantially completed in October 2018. However, slab of one of the span of this flyover has reported damaged twice during the last one year. As such, in order to examine, evaluate and suggest testing to identify the problem and suggest remedial measures to avoid recurrence of such type of damage in flyover, a committee comprising three experts has been constituted with the approval of the competent authority,” the order by general manager, NHAI, Delhi, stated.
A senior NHAI official said that the Hero Honda Chowk flyover has been under observation of the authority since last year’s damage. “The completion certificate of the project has not been given to the contractor and it was withheld due to the damage caused last year. Since this has repeated in the same slab, the experts are of the opinion that the problem is localised, but we are not taking any chances. All measures would be taken to prevent such damage,” he said, on the condition of anonymity.
The highways authority has also deployed staff for photography and videography of the spot and the area around it to detect any change in the surface around the damaged portion, he added.